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About Positive Activities

Find out about the Oxfordshire Positive Activites project, including who you should contact if you want to find out more.

Positive Activities are events, activities, clubs, groups and organisations which provide young people with places to go and things to do. They can be supportive, educational, or just fun.

Anyone who provides positive activities for Oxfordshire young people can add their activities to this website. Find out how.

Why we support Positive Activities

Oxfordshire County Council supports positive activities for young people through direct provision, e.g. through Young Peoples Centres, and through promotion and sign-posting. This is because participation in structured leisure time activities can have real benefits for young people:

"Evidence shows that how young people spend their leisure-time really matters. Participation in constructive leisure-time activities, particularly those that are sustained through the teenage years, can have a significant impact on young people’s resilience and outcomes in later life. International evidence demonstrates that participation in positive activities can: help to improve attitudes to, and engagement with, school; build social and communication skills; help young people avoid taking risks such as experimenting with drugs or being involved in anti-social behaviour or crime; and improve their self-confidence and self-esteem. Participation can also help increase the resilience of young people who are trying to rebuild their lives – for example young offenders who are trying to change their behaviours and lifestyles.

Participation in positive activities also provides opportunities for building relationships with positive role models, and for mixing with, and bridging gaps between, young people from different ethnic and faith groups as well as different generations – thereby building community cohesion. They can also act as a gateway to support services, which can provide additional help if and when things start to go wrong."

From Aiming high for young people: a ten year strategy for positive activities, July 2007

Many groups are involved in delivering Positive Activities to young people in Oxfordshire. This includes local, parish and district councils; schools and colleges; sports and leisure facilities; clubs and centres; enthusiastic individuals; and groups of young people themselves. All of them are doing great work in providing Oxfordshire's Young People with the opportunity to meet new people, experience new things and have fun.

You can find out more about Positive Activities in Aiming high for young people: a ten year strategy for positive activities and Aiming high for young people – three years on (March 2010) from which this quote is taken:

"At the heart of this document is a vision of a country in which a young person’s background and family circumstances are no barrier to participation in sports, culture and all other kinds of positive activities. Where there are high quality places to go in every community ... that demonstrate that we value young people and their contribution. Places where young people can access the range of dedicated youth health services they need. Places where provision is so attractive and engaging that young people no longer complain of having nothing to do, thus preventing communities from having to suffer the consequences of boredom fuelled antisocial behaviour. In return, we will expect young people to make the most of these opportunities and give something back to their communities, including through volunteering and taking part in community action."

The Positive Activities Partnership

The Positive Activities website has been set up by the Positive Activities Partnership including representatives from:

• Oxfordshire Youth Arts Partnership
• Oxfordshire Sports Partnership
• Oxford Inspires
• Oxfordshire 14-19 Partnership
• Oxfordshire County Council Youth Support Services
• Oxfordshire County Council Extended Schools and Services
• Cherwell District Council
• Oxford City Council
• South Oxfordshire District Council
• Vale of White Horse District Council
• West Oxfordshire District Council
• The voluntary sector in Oxfordshire

Background to the work in Oxfordshire on positive activities is available by downloading Oxfordshire’s local offer of positive activities for young people (.pdf format, 362Kb) published by Oxfordshire’s Children and Young People’s Board.

Further background to the original targeted national programme including an evaluation is available from the Department of Children, Schools and Families on the Every Child Matters website.

Contacts

For support with adding a positive activity to this website, to report an inappropriate activity, or to suggest an activity which should be included, please contact the Opportunities Team:

Opportunities Team
62 Stert Street
Abingdon
Oxfordshire
OX14 3UQ
Tel: 01865 328460
opportunities@oxfordshire.gov.uk

To make suggestions, have news published or report an inaccuracy on this website, please contact the Web Editor:

Jeremy Day
Supporting Choices - Integrated Youth Support Services
County Hall 3rd Floor
Oxford
OX1 1ND
Tel: 01865 815692
jeremy.day@oxfordshire.gov.uk